"In 1979 the MG Car Company celebrated the 50th Anniversary of its move from Edmund Road, Cowley, Oxford to Abingdon. They asked Morland & Co. to brew a special commemorative beer for the occasion, for which they would suggest the name. The name chosen was ‘Old Speckled Hen’, which took its name not from a bird, but a car: a paint-spattered MG Featherlight Saloon. Back in the day, this was the MG factory run-around, fondly referred to as the “Owld Speckl’d Un” due to its mottled appearance after several years parked under the paint shop."